/lounge/ - sushi social

I grew up in the northeast US with the piles of snow it gets every year. Live in the Bay Area now with no snow. I fly back to visit for the holidays which involves some exposure to snow and the cold…and I enjoy it for that week but I'm ready to come back to milder temperatures by the end of it. I also don't miss dealing with work commutes in that kind of weather. But yeah, you could say that I have a much harder time getting into a Christmas-y mood when it's 55 and sunny in December.

I like the cold winters we sometimes get, with lots of snow. Love how muffled the noise of the city gets, and the creaking when walking. In later years, winters have been very mild, with sidewalks covered in salty wet sleet or water. Last year when it was dry, the sidewalks were white not from snow, but from all the road salt my city use.

I want to move to a different city, somewhere more inland that sees more snow, and uses grit instead of salt.

I've never seen or touched snow in my life (aside from pictures and movies), but I'm still praying it's somewhat cold on christmas, because having a sunny day that day sucks for the mood.

The sign of Christmas here is empty streets, with people going on holidays somewhere else (family lives close so we don't really go anywhere).

I have never seen snow.

I haven't really been paying attention to forecasts, but if the weather doesn't change soon in the Philly area it looks like it's gonna be a wet Christmas.

I actually really like this type of weather, but I'd prefer to have it in November or March. The fact that it's warm enough to rain in mid-December is scary.

>>6494
Hahaha, I remember a guy that did that shit. He would just randomly fall asleep during the day, a narcoleptic or something.

Yea, I know what you're talking about though. You have it so good, but you feel that quiet desperation, some sort of first world problem.

For me, it's that build up of working really hard to get to your goal, sacrificing everything, yet finding out that, whichever way you spin it, it doesn't seem worth it.

You still have to show up to work on time.
You still have to put in those 8 to 10 hours each day.
You still have to work weekends on occasion.
You still catch flack if the boss can't see you in your cube.

In a since, it's like upgraded childhood, something that you hoped you might eventually escape through enough hard work. Yet, here you are grinding away on your next ticket and hoping to spend your free time kicking the shit with your old friends.

You love spending time with your friends.
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>>6498
Wow, sushi, are you me?

I went through an uncannily similar line of thought when I got out of my first IT job doing tickets. Worked for a few weeks somewhere much worse, then switched to cybersec. Quit after a few months because it was indistinguishable from selling snake oil at a colossal scale. Felt like a downward spiral. Went back to uni to get my masters, which is where I am now. I can't muster the willpower to code anymore, and I'm still considered a "junior" in the industry.

Will probably get the paper and move to some other town. Don't know exactly how to approach a long term plan from here, and that's infuriating.

I also work as a software dev, for maybe half a year, and I dislike it.
The programs are uninteresting. People also dont understand how much faster programs could be, but that is a completely different topic.
I dont care about teaching people, its tedious, and they wont listen and even if they were to learn they wouldnt use the knowledge anyway.
So I just pretend to listen to them, shit out whatever code that has an "acceptable" level, and just try to pass the time the rest of the time.
Work conditions are alright though. I can leave early and from home sometimes.
But honestly I would rather do something creative and/or with my hands.
Building something out of wood could surely be more fun, but who knows.

>>6501

I wonder if anyone does. If they do, their situation and goals are almost guaranteed to be so much different than yours that advice doesn't apply.

Being creative in directing your life is hard work in itself, huh?

I don't, it lacks meaning.

When I tried to escape finance I ended up in digital advertising of all places, hilarious stuff that somehow made me grow as a person. But my principles forced me back to square one and a goal for next year is to switch jobs once again. (As time passes it gets more scary to do so and fall upwards)

I used to wake up a couple of minutes before my alarm. When I then dozed off again I dreamed about getting up and starting my day. Once my alarm actually signaled me it's time to get out of bed, I had to go through all of that again, even though I thought I already had that behind me.

This taught me how to start doing things.

I channel that all into writing. Then, the next day, I act on my vision, having already clarified it in writing.

First comes a vague feeling.
Second comes the refinement of that feeling into a plan.
Third comes the action, bringing that plan into reality.

Sometimes I get stuck on acting. When that happens, I go back to refinement. If I get stuck on refinement, I revisit the original vague feeling.

The feeling is the why.
The plan is the how.
The action is the what.

If you feel very motivated, but you haven't decided on the direction, throw something at the wall. Keep throwing random ideas at the wall until you find one that lets you get to the next step.

I like to think of it like navigating a maze in the dark. You can only move forward until you hit a wall. Once you hit that wall, you can go back to where you started, or you can move along the wall, hoping that there will be another path that leads you where you want to go.

Last time I did anything "exciting" was when I went to the local amusement park with my girlfriend during the Halloween promotion. We went on a ride where you sit down and they get you really high up and it spins around. I have a phobia of heights so I couldn't breathe.

The last time I hung out with what little friends I have (which isn't too often), I gave them surprise gifts.

It's probably not very exciting for other people, but I've almost finished preparing my garden!
A few months back I cleaned out my family's decrepit old greenhouse and filled it with plants. Now that it's all verdant I don't really have the space in it to grow what I want to. So I dug out an old tiller and am trying to learn how to make an in ground garden.
It's been hard, I'm physically weak so controlling the tiller was rough. And then trying to rake out all the grass, rocks, and small bits of trash that got lost in the dirt has been a multi-day project. But my first section of daikon has sprouted, my tomatoes in the greenhouse are thriving, and I even made the time to set up a table and chairs out there under a tree so I can rest. Planning to put decorative plants around it, hopefully they'll attract bees.

The most exciting things that happened to me are rather bad, like I almost wrecked my car twice in the past weeks. The first time I dodged another car and barely made it out of the rain grove before hitting the next tree. The second time a bunch of deers crossed my trajectory, so I had to perform emergency braking, but hit one of them anyway.

>6546
i got into a car crash a month ago. nobody got hurt, but still, not fun times. winter is tough, stay safe out there, sushi.

>>6375
that's probably an oversimplification, but i get where you're coming from. i find it difficult to balance, personally; not wanting to be vulnerable but still wanting to be sensitive to others

I think that compassion and strength go together quite well.

The idea that these two are contrasting is your weakness.

sushi roll your compassion is your strength! Don't let people make you think your kind heart is a weakness! You're not weak sushi roll, you've probably endured a lot in your life. There are people out there who will exploit your kind heart, but don't fret, you will find somebody who can appreciate you for who you are!

its like a penis. When you're gentle with it, it gets harder

drawing on a rainy day

>>5642
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Ch5PLwgIbXSpHEiUOQy0Q

Sara is and will always be a qt

I'm going to have a good cry, and then start another fresh day tomorrow

>>6263
That sounds nice

>>6262
>ogdoad
>najanaja
Naja is a cobra and the word comes from the sanskrit Naga
My almonds are reaching critical mass.
What does he know? Does Japan have secret esoteric societies? I have long suspected the Naga have some relation to the Egyptian Ogdoad and he started this website in 1999. Desire to know more intensifies. Here's a drawing I made a while ago of Kauket of the Ogdoad, the bird is supposed to be the owl Moloch, I know I suck at drawing

I got a lot of small things done, many of them are small steps toward a larger goal. Even though the incremental results are incomplete, obviously flawed, and need to be refined, I'm glad that I was able to take the first steps.

Perfectionism is a hell of a non-starter.

Today I went out to town and now I'm back home. I'm going to cook today and I'm making dumplings! I just made the dough and gotta let it sit for a couple hours before I'm bound to do the rest, so I want to take the next couple hours to do what I've been meaning to do for the last few days, which is to read some ruby books to start doing a project that want to do.
There's so much filling my days that I barely get to do anything I want to. For one thing I gotta work during the first few hours of the day, so I have about 4 hours tops in the afternoons for myself, which I use mostly for learning chinese because it's my #1 priority right now, but every day I also wish I could catch up on these ruby books so I can get started with my project but I barely get the time to do this. Then I'm taking upon reading fiction which is somewhat related to my project, so in the evening I'm starting to read a lil bit but I'm so tired by then that I fall asleep after a few pages.
So I guess I gotta take it little by little with the little time I have left to do my own stuff, which as I said, even if I can dedicate to my project, I gotta read a few books before I can actually start doing anything with any confidence. I can get started after a few pages with this first book which is supposed to teach me the language (I'm super rusty with any programming whatsoever, plus, I want to do this right rather than doing a bunch of guesswork and having to google how to fetch methods from classes almost every time).
Anyway, at least I have a project in mind, even if it's going to take me a while, at least I have some leisure to proceed…

>>5638
That looks incredibly comfy NGL. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia and i'm begging for rain to come and take the heat away.

>>5669
Fuck it's hot.

>>5672 I'm there i feel like the heat is much better than usual this year. Those pictures are comfy as hell though

Anyway my day's been pretty good, I've decided to try online dating so while I haven't had any success yet I'm feeling good about trying. Also a Sunday without too much to do is always nice

>>5673
Yep. And I got no air conditioner at home

Im doing really well actually. I've started seeing a girl recently and she makes me very happy. My studies are going well, I thought this year at university would be rough but I couldn't be more wrong.

>>6198
My notes are for biology research, so they are specifically to:
- take notes from articles and papers.
- schedule and record experiments.
- store code and results from analysis.

It is all stored in markdown files that are edited with org-mode in emacs (https://orgmode.org/). It's crazy powerful and configurable, but if you don't use the extra features it is nice and simple.

For general notes I use a single file with a hierarchy of headings / subheadings for different topics. I have a bibtex file where I put all the references I come across. Then the org-ref package to link them from the notes file. When writing an article I'll copy my thoughts and references from here into a new file, which is then compiled down with latex into a report with proper citations.

Specific projects get their own notes file. These are organised chronologically (I thought this, so I did this experiment, it didn't work, therefore I…). These contain timestamps for scheduling things I have to do, along with code and plots / pictures. Once I'm done with the project they are saved for future reference and I don't change them anymore.

I find it useful to have the clear separation between notes files, which I constantly re-write and re-organise over time as my understanding changes, and the project specific files which only ever get more information added at the end and serve as a record of what I did and thought at the time.

>>6198
I can either pay attention of takes notes, so in the end it is much better to never take notes, unless there is enough time after the explanation to take notes.

To be honest, i don't understand many of your your questions very well.
The way i study is by doing excercises on anything that has math on it or paying attention to class.

>>6199

I've seen Cherry Tree a few times before, but it always seemed to be kind of ugly. I'll try it out for a few weeks to see if I can get over that. It is really cool that you can attach any file to a node though.

My approach is simple, on lectures I try to write everything fast - focus is on listening. Then I just rewrite the notes. I can say it is not very time efficient, because I want them as clear and pretty as possible, focusing less on actually thinking on material.

>>6206
It is pretty function over form I have to admit, that's kinda what I like about it though. Put the effort where it counts.
You can always export to PDF/HTML in a second for when not actually editing, for a more comfy reading experience. Also if you do programming, can compile and execute current node with an F5 buttonpress.
Also shiet, giving it a closer look than usual I'm finding stuff I didn't even know, noticed the exported PDFs actually keep the code highlighting.
And F8 apparently auto-creates a node for you with a year/month/day structure, landing you at a current-day node. Would be super quick to make a journal, just F8 and you have the days log-file. Also another button to insert date/time-stamp just as simple text.

But yeah, if you just wanna get work done it's a godsend, and if you dig into the functionality you'll probably find stuff that could make your workflow and notation style super smooth.

>>6045
Yea, I have 5 years of experience in the “real world.” The “real world” is full of pandering to your coworkers so that they think you are a smart, likeable guy who doesn’t cause any trouble. Every once in a while you get that opportunity to surprise everyone by improving request latency by 10x and acting like anyone could have done it. Your coworkers ignore it, but your boss recognizes that it makes a difference. You get promoted, your coworkers become envious, and you end up quitting because you find a better job anyways.

All I’m saying is that the bar in the “real world” is very low when it comes to technical skills. If you know what the fuck you are doing, you can pull out those unique moments that make people notice without ruining your reputation. So, in a sense, you’re right. The status quo tends toward reusable libraries. If you can recognize the special circumstances for that graph algorithm you remembered, maybe you can demonstrate that you are the 10x engineer that your boss has been reading about for so long.

>>6076
for certain tasks, especially when you have tight deadlines, it simply isn't feasible to write stuff yourself
maybe if you're at a waterfall company, they don't mind you taking a long time to reinvent the wheel
but with agile/devops they emphasize pushing to production as quickly as possible, even with unit tests and whatnot

>>6044
> a lot of the things that you learn in school directly affect how well you can go "above and beyond" at your job.
Its just basic stuff. Low hanging fruit which is just ignored by your average programmer. Its not "above and beyond", but rather "you dont suck".
The real gold stuff isn't found in academia mostly, but rather the "top" of the real world, hidden and obscure.

>>6101
just had to reply because this is such a fucking stupid post, 3rd and 4th year comp sci is immensely important, you can get by without knowing data structures, graph theory, boolean algebra, asymptotic notation, the underlying logic of common algorithms etc but you're forever going to be working in the dark seeing everything as nail that fits the very, very limited hammer you've given yourself – I guarantee there are patterns and approaches applicable to things you work on every day that you've never even considered because you lack the vocabulary to even think about these problems in a different way

furthermore you're completely wrong, SOTA algorithms are exclusively generated by research institutions. read SIGGRAPH proceedings sometime and tell me how many of the papers didn't come from "academia"

>>6117
Dude, I'm a master of those things you mentioned.
Learning about all of that doesnt require a school to teach you.
Just grab a book and read it / work through it.

Also I dont think you understood my post.
What I meant was, understanding these things should be the normal.
Knowing about basic CS, doesn't make you awesome, it means you just dont suck (like 95% of programmers)

Computer Graphics is one of the only fields were academia still produces good papers,
but only because there is interesting stuff in Graphics left to be found.
For many other fields in CS, academia remains a circlejerk.
But even when it comes to SIGGRAPH a lot of the shit is really impressive, but if you'd program something like a video-game engine, you can pretty much ignore those papers.
For most of the applications, that you as a programmer, would create that use computer graphics, reading some obscure blog-post about the graphics-pipeline can be a lot more helpful, than reading papers published in SIGGRAPH.